Help with Dendrobium Keiki please.......

[dragonfire0528]

Have been searching the forum for info on den.keiki. There seems to be more people with phals than dendrobiums......

The problem for me is that I have tried to pot up several keiki and they keep dying!

I have a new keiki on a plant that has never had one before and I'd like to make sure this one survives.........

On my other dens, I tried cutting away just the keiki after the roots have gotten around and inch and a half to two inches and potting them, that didn't work..........I tried cutting the cane and leaving the keiki attached to the cut part and planting that, but that didn't work either.......

The last bunch of keiki I got were forming on a dying cane and the cane had broken off the mother plant, so I attached the whole thing to a tree and I am hopeing that this will work...........so far, the keiki haven't attached to the tree yet.

Oh yeah, I also tried cutting a piece of the cane and attaching it with the keiki to a piece of tree fern (Hapuu as we call it here......) with a bit of sphagnum wrapped around the keiki roots. It's been months and the keiki is still alive, but hasn't grown hardly at all and hasn't attached to the tree fern.

Any suggestions? I'm tired of killing keiki's!

[JB_Orchidguy]

Keiki's need to stay Moist at all times. It sounds as if they are drying out to much. They are basicly seedlings and cannot take drying out like the older plants can. I had a batch of Keikis from a Den Nobile die because I didn't keep them moist enough. I got anther batch from the same friend that are now taking over a 4 inch pot because I kept them moist this time and didn't forget about them. The mounted ones need to eb watered everyday or two times a day if they dry fast. The ones in a pot need to be planted in LFS untill they are of good size. Remember a keiki is basicly a seedling again so it must stay moist and humid.

[dragonfire0528]

Ahhhh, I see.........I had wondered if that were the case, but wasn't able to find out till now.

As far as removing the keiki from the parent would you suggest cutting off a piece of the cane as well or just the keiki would be alright? I would hate to cut off a piece of the cane and have it rot and kill the keiki.

By the way, what is LFS? Sphagnum?

[JB_Orchidguy]

LFS is long fibered sphagnum moss. You don;t need to cut part of the cane unless you want to. I have some that had the old cane and some that don't. As long as they have roots growing on their own they should be fine as long as they stay moist untill grown.

[dragonfire0528]

Gotcha! Thanks again for all the help! I'll give it a try and see how it goes!

[JB_Orchidguy]

No Problem I hope they take off for you. Goodluck!!

[MichigooseOH]

and I usually leave them on until the roots are 3" and you have at least 3 3" roots or more.....Don't be in a hurry to take them off, as was noted, keeping them moist enough and humid enough without drowning them is difficult....

[WolfinKW]

cool I was wondering about this myself as I have several of them forming and didn't know exactly what to do with them. Will try that.

Wolf